Paul Ryan’s Path To Solvency

Now, there are certainly different types of goals: long-term, short-term, financial, physical, personal, family, educational, artistic, religious, health, etc. A country without a budget/goal is like a ship without a rudder. Image Credit: Weider Fitness

By: Edmund Jenks – West Coast Editor

Today, the American Enterprise Institute has released a plan put forth by Wisconsin Congressman, Paul Ryan, by which our country could become prosperous and solvent through making the economic purpose of our federal government be right-sized and focused on its key reasons for existence.

This plan was issued as a response to the expansion of federal government in everyday life (through both the 43rd Presidency of George Bush and doubled-down upon during the 44th Presidency of Barack Obama) … and most recently, the latest budget released last month by the Obama Administration.

Forget the fact that our Democrat Political Party controlled Senate, run by Nevada Senator Harry Reid, which has the responsibility to draft, pass and implement a budget, has seen fit to not pass or operate from a formal budget in over 1,000 days (blowing the lid off of spending controls). Basically, this abandonment of responsibility and public trust leaves our ship of state operating without a rudder.

Barack Obama doesn’t have a long-term, debt-reduction plan. Paul Ryan does. So under the Geithner formulation, Ryan wins by default.

But the latest version of Ryan’s Path to Prosperity, released today, does far more than defeat a rival who’s decided to forfeit the field. It presents a bold and sweeping solution to America’s twin problems: too much debt and too little economic growth.

– By 2022, under the Ryan Path, debt as a share of GDP would be 62.3% vs. a projected 73.2% in 2012. Under the Obama budget debt as a share of GDP would be 76.3% in 2022, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Over that period, the Ryan Path would spend $5.3 trillion less than the Obama budget by, in large part, axing Obamacare and block-granting welfare programs — including Medicaid — to the states.

– Longer term, the differences between the Ryan Path and the Obama budget are even starker. By 2030, debt-to-GDP would be 53% under Ryan, 128% under Obama. By 2040, debt-to-GDP would be 38% under Ryan, 194% under Obama. By 2050, debt-to-GDP would be 10% under Ryan, over 200% under Obama – assuming that under the Obama scenario, the economy hasn’t collapsed.

How does Ryan do it? Medicare reform is at the heart of the Path to Prosperity. Where Obamacare relies on unelected bureaucrats to keep costs down, the Ryan path uses competition. Under Ryan’s revised “premium support” plan – essentially the Wyden-Ryan proposal — seniors beginning in 2023 could use their Medicare dollars to choose from a menu of private plans, along with Medicare’s traditional fee-for-service system. Every year there would be a competitive bidding process among all plans to determine the dollar amount of the federal contribution that seniors would use to purchase coverage. (The benefits in the private plans would have to be as least as good as Medicare.) The second least-expensive approved plan or Medicare, whichever is least expensive, would establish the benchmark that determines the premium support amount.

Seniors who prefer pricier plans would have to pay the difference between the premium subsidy and the monthly premium. Seniors who choose a less expensive plan could pocket the difference. As a backup — and so CBO could score the plan — per capita costs could not exceed nominal GDP growth plus 0.5%.

The Ryan Path reforms the tax code by creating a two-rate system — 25% and 10% — for individuals, while lowering the corporate rate to 25% and moving to a territorial system. Now because of CBO budget rules, the Ryan Path assumes tax reform doesn’t boost growth, though it almost assuredly would. So when you factor in faster growth, Ryan’s budget numbers look even better. By contrast, Obama would take the top income tax and dividend tax rates to 45%, capital gains to 24%. Talk about austerity.

The Ryan Path isn’t perfect. It takes a pass on Social Security reform and fails to specify what tax breaks would be scaled back or eliminated. But even with those flaws, the Ryan Path presents a vivid contrast with the Obama budget. One leads to prosperity and solvency, the other leads to a debt crisis — with the likely response being massive tax increases and healthcare rationing by Washington – and decline.

As Ryan puts it: ”The choice of two futures presented in this budget is premised on the wisdom of the American people to build a prosperous future for themselves and for generations of Americans to come.
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It is time to think about the economic future of our country and recognize the serious consequence of continuing along the path our leaders insist on taking our country over these last 11 plus years. Our country demands economic direction through strong leadership and a change to a federal government that is right-sized and focused on results versus intention in its outsized foreign-financed debt/spending agenda experienced here during the 44th Presidency of Barack Obama … Carter’s Second Term.

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About the Author

Edmund Jenks - West Coast Editor
Biography:
Edmund Jenks is the Managing Editor of five Weblogs: MAXINE, Symblogogy , Oblate Spheroid, Carter’s Second Term, & notes from The EDJE. He provides consulting and relationship services and has been republished by Pajama’s Media, LATimes, Execupundit, Library Clips, Japan Only, Planet CellPhone, The Grocery List, BlogoWogo, Instapundit, PoliticalOpinions, Slate, AOLnews, WIRED, and WSJ Online …to mention a few.
He’s also a Feature Page Manager for Motorsports and Feature Page Editor for Tech & Biz on NowPublic, member of the Motor Press Guild, registered citizen journalist on BlogRoll of Pajamas Media, and has appeared on Pajamas TV.
Edmund Jenks has joined the Politisite team with his expertise in National Politics with a West Coast Conservative Flair. We are honored to have Ed as part of our growing portfolio of journalists and commentators.